After Effects
by BonesBird
Summary: Brody doesn't deal with failure very well, so Pride sits down to talk to her. (Episode tag 1x08)


**So, continuing with my recent habit of writing a post-ep/episode tag for each episode, I'm finally getting around to posting the one from 1x08. Obviously this is set in the ten minutes or so after Brody's fight with the bomber. Please read and review.**

**Shin xx**

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><p>Everything had happened so fast. The chase, the fight, and the end. They'd heard the blast, and that was when the suspect had finally given up fighting. Pride had come and picked her up immediately after Brody had gotten her cuffed. Then she'd gone to lean against the hood of a nearby car. She didn't even know who's it was. It was just there, and it was a place for her to rest as she watched Pride hand her over. "Here, take away." She heard eventually, figuring that Pride was now deciding it was worth just questioning her at headquarters. Then he headed in her direction and perched next to her, taking a little more care. "You alright?"<p>

"I'm... still here." That was the only answer she could give, because she wasn't really sure what else she could say. That was pretty much the long and short of it right now. She took all of this too seriously, and too personally when things didn't go as planned.

"You made sure everyone was safe, and what happened was a fluke." That was one way of looking at it, and it was clear Pride was trying to use optimism to make her look up on the whole situation.

But she couldn't, because while maybe everyone was safe, the blast had still happened. She should have been able to prevent that, that was meant to be her job in this situation. It could have been done, too. All it would have taken was another metre. "I should have kicked that further away." She sighed eventually, shaking her head.

"You did everything you could have done." Pride smiled, nudging her gently with his shoulder. That was a motion she was becoming very familiar with. His nudging her and grinning, trying to get her to smile about a particular situation. He was the only one she let see her like this.

"I guess." She sighed, because she still wasn't going to let herself off the hook, not yet. She'd go home, she'd have a shower, she'd watch some shit TV and then she'd feel better. That was the only way she'd recover from this, she knew that. It was her coping mechanism, she'd developed it in Detroit, and it was holding true in New Orleans.

"Are you hurt?" Pride asked after another few seconds. It was a harder question to answer flippantly, so she took a few seconds to take another inventory and decide whether or not she was in enough pain to tell him.

"I know how to take a kick." She answered instead, and that was true because she'd had to learn, it also wouldn't give away anything about how she was feeling, or whether she was hurt.

Pride this time turned and looked at her seriously, and she couldn't remember if she'd ever dodged a question about her physical wellbeing before. "That wasn't what I asked."

"I know." She admitted, giving him a shoulder nudge of her own. That was part of the shorthand the two of them were developing. She knew she could tell him anything, including whether or not she was in pain, but right now it seemed easier to choose not to tell him. Call it preservation, or her own pride, or stubbornness, she just didn't want to say she hurt. "It's what I chose to answer though."

"If you're sure?" He was clearly still worried about her giving the flippant answer, but she knew that he wouldn't need to worry once she'd gotten it all straight in her own mind. That sometimes took longer than it seemed to for the boys she worked with.

So she was absolutely sure that she wasn't hurt, at least, not enough to trouble anyone else with. If that changed, or the pain got worse, she'd say. But right now it was nothing, and she really was going to be fine. "Yeah, I am."

Pride smiled, and this time wrapped his arm around her shoulder to give her a very light squeeze. He then stood up, looking at her seriously "You know where I am if you change your mind."

"Thanks." She was grateful for his offer of being a willing ear. She needed that more often than not after cases like this. It was harder than she'd like to admit that, just maybe, she would need to talk to him. "I might take you up on that tonight. I mean later." She stumbled over the correct thing to say, and she wanted it to be clear that she wasn't going to interrupt if he was busy.

"Well, Merri my door is always open for you." He just nodded serenely, and she was struck by it being one of the few times he used her nickname for her rather than her surname. She didn't mind either being used, but it was definitely a line, and maybe it said he was comfortable with her too. "We should probably go check on Christopher." That broke the moment, and she suddenly realised that LaSalle had been checking the building once more. They would have been gotten by now if he hadn't been fine though.

"You're right. I'll be fine." She would be, it really would just take time, for her no doubt very minor injuries to heal, and for her mental arguments with herself to stop. They would stop, too.

He took a look over his shoulder in the direction they'd originally come from, then looked back at her, his cocky smile back in place as he did. "Good. I never doubted it." That confidence reminded her that these people trusted her to do her job properly, and she would make sure that she kept proving that to them.

"I bet." She laughed a little and let him pull her away from the hood of the car she'd been leaning against. She was a little sore, and a little stiff. But she was certain that would fade in a few minutes as she moved. They'd caught their suspect, but she hadn't been able to prevent what happened, she did hope that their friend was OK too, and he'd made it out in time.


End file.
